Reviews Coming Soon

Album Review:
TBA

Monday, May 28, 2012

Album Review: Bauda – Euphoria… Of Flesh, Men and The Great Escape

The moments when man places his own needs above those of the natural
world might be described as blots on our historical landscape. César
Marquez, a conceptual artist, master of multi-instrumentalism and the
man behind Bauda from Santiago in Chile, seems fascinated by the subject
and appears keen to sculpt his band’s music around these blots. Bauda’s
2009 debut album, Oniirica, attacked the generalized,
nightmarish and “devastated contemporary life” we have created, using
eclectic instrumentation such as flute, accordion and even didgeridoo.
For Euphoria… the general theme remains but the band has honed
in on a specific moment in time. Here, they attempt to whisk us back to
the 40s, 50s and early 60s when Chile’s Quintay Whaling Station was
active and killing up to 16 whales per day.

By aurally soaking us in the raw emotions of the place, they explore
the depths and join hands with the workforce as they hunt, harpoon their
targets and float the mighty beasts to the surface to be harvested;
their carcasses left to rot. Naturally, the miasma of moods that they
need to generate means you’d find it hard to pigeon-hole them and their
music is quite happy genre-hopping about, even mid-song, so you’ll need
to expect the unexpected.

From the off we are sunk beneath the surface to the “Ghosts Of
Phantalassa” (a probable reference to the vast ocean of Panthalassa that
once existed) where wood-splitting samples, oddly sounding like a
rustling box of popcorn, tighten themselves up to form a crunched
rhythm. Warbling keyboards and haunting vocals surround it to form a
dreary, doom-laden kind of shoegaze that sadly ditches its talent all
too early.

“Silhouettes”, the soul of the piece, portrays the whaler’s
conflicted mind as first he sights the creatures and marvels at their
beauty, the music pitching forth a catchy, uplifting lyrical sweep, then
bails on us as thoughts turn to darker deeds. As you float through
you’ll catch hints of Mastodon’s cosmic-prog interwoven with the darkly,
shifting purpose of Lantlôs, the haunting cleans of Alcest and even the
rimshots and palm-muted picking that is so evocative of instrumental
post-rockers like Pelican and Russian Circles. There are even traits of
Opeth in the acoustic guitar that marks out the wonderfully
stripped-back “Crepuscular”.

Without doubt, the lack of shape or form is intentional, but this
inevitably results in some confusing moments. You may find, like I did,
that your own personal journey through the concept will delight and
frustrate you in equal measure. The lack of clarity and an over-reliance
on gimmicks (take the disorienting speaker-to-speaker shifting that
lurks in “Acension”) over structure means the project feels all too
flabby.

Despite their determination to give you the running-time to sink into
their moods, they have a tendency to repeat the dullest of riffs and
chord cycles which eventually result in the tracks overstaying their
welcome. Some ham-fisted attempts to counteract this can be found as
they opt for cringing key changes or sharp drops in pace; moments where
spiked aggression suddenly morphs into twinkling dreampop. All these are
vague attempts to break the blandness, but often result in confusion
and a total abandonment of atmosphere. However, there are moments where
it all clicks into place, demanding repeated plays. Moments like the
sublimely chaotic, endorphin-loaded headrush of “Humanimals” climax, the
murky trickery that lurks in “Oceania” or the uplifting wash of “The
Great Escape”.

If you have the time and the patience, Bauda have the tools to shift
your perceptions of what you thought possible. They refuse to choose the
option to sit and fester, instead choosing to determinedly hunt down
the sublime, minding not when they harpoon the ridiculous. My dull brain
may struggle to keep up with all this motion in the ocean, but Bauda
should still be roundly applauded for their efforts.